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My introduction to comics was a 3 page reprint of the Fantastic Four's origin in a school magazine (Dynamite #4) (I was in 7th grade). It captured me so much I went out and bought the first comic of my comic collecting years (Fantastic Four #160).

In school with someone who had been reading comics for a while (with older brothers) I asked why the art was so different.

He said because they were drawn by different artists. The Dynamite pages were drawn by Jack Kirby and my FF #160 was drawn by...

It didn't matter to me that John Buscema was the name given to finish that sentence. I had the answer I was looking for. Kirby!

I didn't start on comics until I was 16 and it was a creator (Neil Gaiman) I followed into the medium rather than an overwhelming urge to read about Batman. From Sandman I read a bunch of Vertigo stuff and when I saw that writers I liked were doing superhero titles I would pick up things like New X-Men and go from there.

It's the same now where while there are characters I like, I still won't pick up a book featuring them if the creators do nothing for me. Conversely a writer I like on a character I'm cool on is probably going to get a read (All Star Superman and Wonder Woman benefited from this)

I noticed artists pretty much right away. I was eight-years-old and reading Wizard, which made it difficult to ignore artists as there was so much hype surrounding the Image Comics founders at the time.

Not sure when I started taking a liking to particular writers. For a long time, I felt ashamed -- to the point of crying because I thought I was stupid -- when I was unable to follow/understand Youngblood or some other poorly written comic book. My focus was on my comprehension and not on the writers. It was a short time after putting this issue behind me, that I began to seek out particular writers.

I got into comics as an eleven or twelve year old in 1990 or 1991, if I remember correctly, and right away, I paid attention to the artists' names. I never really cared about writers until I got back into comics in 2006.

ThirtyFiveMinutesAgo wrote:For a long time, I felt ashamed -- to the point of crying because I thought I was stupid -- when I was unable to follow/understand Youngblood or some other poorly written comic book.

haha! Same here. I mean, I could and did read massive, complicated books like Dune back when I was 14, but I couldn't grasp the complexities and political intrigue of a Youngblood comic.